On May 21, 1927, Charles "Lucky" Lindbergh landed his single engine aircraft, "The Spirit of St. Louis" in Paris, winning the $25,000 Orteig Prize offered to the first allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice-versa.

Two years later a little known Robert "Believe it or Not!" Ripley established his own claim to fame by publishing the fact that, contrary to popular perception, Lindbergh was the 67th man to make a non-stop flight over the Atlantic.  Unknown to most of the world, a two man British airplane made the Atlantic crossing in 1919. and that same year, an English dirigible flew it with a crew of 31 men. In 1924 a German dirigible repeated the Atlantic flight with its crew of 33. Link

The first non-stop flight in a heavier than air craft was accomplished by Alcock and Brown (Newfoundland to Ireland) in 1919, winning a £10,000 prize as the first flyers to cross the Atlantic non-stop.

Lindbergh, of course, is credited with making the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic.  A solo flight was not a condition of the prize.

Webb wrote on May 21^st, 2007 at 7:08am:
Crazy. This reminds me of how people think the Wright Brothers made the first flight yet there are reports of other people doing it before them. We sure do live in a world of mysteries. 

murjax wrote on May 25^th, 2007 at 9:51am:



Ask a German and they will say the first person to fly was Otto Linenthal.

Matt

Hagar wrote on May 25^th, 2007 at 10:11am:

Surely you know by now that Americans see nothing that happens outside of America.  If Alcock and Brown had landed in the US instead of Newfoundland Americans would have been yawning over Lindbergh.  Maybe.  But Lindbergh was American and Alcock & Brown were English.

If you need further proof ask the average American which name sounds more familiar - Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepard or John Glenn.

It's always nice to find someone else that shares my December 25 birthday.

Hagar wrote on May 26^th, 2007 at 3:56am:



Bugger, I thought James Stewart did it first

Matt

H wrote on May 26^th, 2007 at 6:21am:



A 1500 mile buffer zone, South Korea could only dream of that

Matt

Arnimon wrote on May 26^th, 2007 at 4:51pm:


Ah, but Arni, I said that if you asked a German. I am English, but as we used to say in a previous life, it was close enough for government work 

Matt

You will be telling us Frank Whittle did not invent the jet engine next

Matt